8 days

When we went to meet Sam’s K1 teacher, she informed us that the children needed a pair of indoor shoes to wear around the classroom. Evidently, in an effort to keep the classroom clean, they wear their “outdoor” shoes to and from school and at recess and they wear their “indoor” shoes inside the classroom. Some kids had slip on tennis shoes, some had flip flops and some had slippers. Sam chose a modern adaptation on the classic Holland wooden clog. They have these adorable fuzzy slipper style wooden clogs at the gift shop in our hotel (which was a perfect location in my estimation). They are cute and Dutch at the same time.

The weather here has turned really cold and rainy and windy. Mom, Dad, Matt, Maria and Lucas, make sure you bring warm clothes!

Helmut and I went to look at all three houses yesterday. He hated the first one we looked at (which was the third one on my blog and the one that most of you voted for). On my second trip there, it didn’t seem as great as I had previously thought. All the ceilings were really low and the house was too chopped up. The house on Windlustweg was even better than I had thought before. The kitchen was great with a double oven (still small by American standards), six burner gas cook top, built-in frig and dishwasher and an extra frig/freezer and storage in a pantry room right off the kitchen. There is a huge balcony off the master large enough for a table and chairs (not sure why we would ever put one up there for, but it is big enough). The masterbath is incredible with one of those showers that sprays from three sides! Clearly, this one is our favorite. The only problem is that the owners are still living in it and we are not sure they can vacate it fast enough for out liking. I will talk with the realtor tomorrow and hopefully we will find out pretty quickly. We also went and looked at the house on Deijlerweg (which is way better than it looks on the internet, by the way). Helmut also liked this one. It doesn’t have as much character and details like the other one, but we could be happy with it as well. Like I told Helmut, “I will be sad if we don’t get the Windlustweg house, but I can be happy with the Deijlerweg house.

We ventured out to the Volvo dealership and in true Dutch fashion we still don’t have a car. The dealer is a low talker and seems to be in no hurry for us to buy a car. I have decided to stop worrying about it, what will happen will happen.

Helmut is off to London again tomorrow and won’t be back until Wednesday. I have nothing to say about that really, just thought you should know.

So we have been in Holland for eight days now and in some ways it seems like we have just arrived and in other ways it seems like we have been here for months. Here are a few interesting things we have learned about this new country over the past week.

Each time we went to McDonald’s they asked us how many ketchups we wanted (no self serve). It took us a few visits to realize they charge .35 euros (.46 US cents) for each packet of ketchup. How crazy is that? Even in China (were they charge you for toilet paper at some places) they didn’t charge you for ketchup. I am seriously considering writing an email to McDonald’s corporate. It’s not the money; it’s the principle of the matter.

Weird thing number two: it is pitch dark here by 5:00 PM and I hear it will get even earlier as the year nears an end. Evidently the sun stays up until around 10:30 PM in the summer. It is very hard to get used to.

Crazy thing number three: They regularly drop the “F-bomb” on television. I have finally just taken the remote control away from the kids and they are doomed to watching DVDs for the next few years.

Despite those weird things, we are adjusting and still enjoying the beautiful scenery in our new home.